Knowing about teaching, learning to
teach and beginning teachers as
learners. What does research tell us?
Trevor Mutton
University of Oxford
Research and the
Teaching Profession:
Building the Capacity
for a Self-Improving
Education System (BERARSA, 2014)
3 aspects of professional knowledge
• Situated understanding
phronesis
• Technical knowledge
techne
• Critical reflection
episteme
2 popular conceptions of a good teacher
3 aspects of professional knowledge
• Situated understanding
phronesis
• Technical knowledge
techne
• Critical reflection
episteme
Both inadequate as they stand
Only the conception of teacher as
professional encompasses all three
Teaching
Learning
to teach
Combining
the roles of teacher and learner
The challenges inherent in teaching
Teaching
1. The range of knowledge that
teachers need
• Of learners and learning;
• Of subject matter and curriculum
goals;
• Of knowledge of teaching
(Bransford et al. 2007)
2. The importance of interpretation &
judgement
‘Clinical reasoning’
... the analytical and intuitive cognitive
processes that professionals use to arrive
at a best judged ethical response in a
specific practice-based context. (Krievaldt
and Turnidge, 2013: 106)
The challenges inherent in teaching
Teaching
1. The range of knowledge that
teachers need
• Of learners and learning;
• Of subject matter and curriculum
goals;
• Of knowledge of teaching
(Bransford et al. 2007)
2. The importance of interpretation &
judgement
• The complexity of the classroom
(Doyle, 1977)
• Reconciling competing concerns
(Kennedy, 2004, 2005; Burn et al. 2003)
Competing concerns
•
•
•
•
•
•
covering desirable content;
fostering student learning;
increasing students’ willingness to participate;
maintaining lesson momentum;
creating a civil classroom community; and
attending to their own cognitive and
emotional needs (Kennedy, 2004, 2005).
The challenges inherent in learning
to teach
1. Professional knowledge has
to be enacted
(Buchmann, 1984; Shulman 1998)
2. Simple ‘rules of thumb’ are
not enough
(Kennedy 2006; Hammerness et al.
2005; Hagger & McIntyre, 2006)
Learning
to teach
3. Expertise revealed in practice is
difficult to articulate
(Hagger 1997, Hagger & McIntyre 2006, Eraut 2000)
4. Asking critical questions of experienced teachers
demands sensitivity and self-awareness (Hagger 1997,
Hagger & McIntyre 2006)
The challenges in being a learner
of teaching
1. The importance of
teacher identity
2. The risks of hitting a
plateau
(Furlong & Maynard 1995
Hagger & McIntyre 2006
Zeichner 1996)
Combining
the roles of teacher and learner
Unless the practicum helps to teach
prospective teachers how to take control
of their own professional development
and to learn how to continue learning, it
is miseducative, no matter how
successful the teacher might be in the
short run. (Zeichner 1996: 217)
The challenges in being a learner
of teaching
1. The importance of
teacher identity
2. The risks of hitting a
plateau
(Furlong & Maynard 1995
Hagger & McIntyre 2006
Zeichner 1996)
3. Compounded by a
culture of
performativity
(Ball 2003)
Combining
the roles of teacher and learner
So what do we know about
beginning teachers as learners?
Combining
the roles of teacher and learner
The DEBT project
Developing Expertise of Beginning Teachers
Focus
What and how are beginning teachers learning?
as reflected in their accounts of practice
(planning, teaching and evaluation)
- as stated in claims about learning in relation to that lesson
- as described in more general reflections on their learning
-
Sample
36 student teachers from two institutions
(12 each in English, Maths and Science)
24 tracked for a further two years in teaching
Data
Observations &
Interviews
PGCE year: 4 post-lesson interviews (+ start & year end)
NQT year: 3 post-lesson interviews (+ year end)
2nd year of teaching: 3 post-lesson interviews (+ year end)
So what do we know about
beginning teachers as learners?
Combining
the roles of teacher and learner
The wide range and deeply
entrenched nature of their
preconceptions
- about teaching, learning and
learning to teach
(Younger et al. 2004; Lortie 1975; Smylie 1995;
Kennedy 1999; Hobson et al. 2008)
The diversity within beginning
teachers' learning:
- questioning ‘stage’ theories (Fuller & Bown, 1975;
or Furlong & Maynard, 1995)
- different starting points and different
trajectories
- their progress is not linear
- not thinking about different things over time
but about the same range of things differently
(Burn et al. 2000, 2003; Pendry 1997)
(
The range of issues with which
they are trying to grapple from
the very beginning
(Burn et al. 2003)
The fundamental importance
of learning from experience
(Hagger et al. 2008)
Sources to which they
attributed learning
Experience
72%
Other in-school
sources
19%
University sources
3%
Unspecified
6%
The differences in their
approach to learning from
experience
– particularly the extent to
which they
plan deliberately for that
learning
(Hagger et al. 2008, Mutton et al. 2010)
Orientations towards learning
from experience
Aspiration
Intentionality
Frame of
reference
Response to
critical
feedback
Attitude to
context
The importance of the affective dimension
- impacting on their capacity to evaluate their
own practice and receptiveness to feedback
and guidance
(Burn et al. (2015) Malderez et al. 2007, Hobson et al. 2008,)
I’ve had a few bad ones that have upset me
personally because I’ve spent a lot of time trying to
make it interesting, because initially you think ‘It’s
you, it’s the way you’re doing it, it’s wrong’.
(Science student teacher, interview 2)
But I do get upset. I do beat myself up over it and go
home in floods of tears about it.
(English student teacher, interview 3)
So what do we know about
beginning teachers as learners?
• The wide range and deeply entrenched nature of their
preconceptions
• The diversity within beginning teachers' learning
• The range of issues with which they’re grappling from
the very beginning
• The fundamental importance of learning from
experience
• The differences in their approach to learning from
experience
• The importance of the affective dimension
Implications for teacher educators and for
partnerships
1. Taking the beginning teachers' preconceptions,
emerging ideas and developing thinking seriously
2. Structuring the beginners’ access to the curriculum of
teacher education (the realities of teaching)
3. Teacher educators providing a powerful role model in
their own approach to professional learning
4. Promoting the development of a deliberative approach
to their own learning
5. Expanding beginning teachers’ frame of reference
Read more ....
•Guide for teacher
educators
•Draws on the DEBT
research
•Case study approach
Katharine Burn
Hazel Hagger
Trevor Mutton
Burn, K., Hagger, H., Mutton, T., & Everton T. (2000) Beyond Concerns with Self: the sophisticated thinking of beginning
teachers, Journal of Education for Teaching, 26 (3) pp 259 – 278
Burn, K., Hagger, H., Mutton, T. & Everton T. (2003) ‘The complex development of student teachers’ thinking’, Teachers
and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 9 (4) pp 309-331
Hagger, H., Burn, K., Mutton, T. & Brindley, S. (2008) Practice makes perfect? Learning to learn as a teacher in Oxford
Review of Education 34 (2), 159-178
Younger, M., Brindley, S., Pedder, D. and Hagger, H. (2004) ‘Starting points: teachers’ reasons for becoming teachers
and their preconceptions of what this will mean’, European Journal of Teacher Education 27(4), 245-264.
Mutton, T., Burn, K & Hagger, H. (2010) Making sense of learning to teach: learners in context, Research Papers in
Education 25 (1) 73-91
Malmberg, L., Hagger, H., Burn, K., Mutton, T. & Colls, H. (2010) Observed Classroom Quality during Teacher Education
and two years of Professional Practice, Journal of Educational Psychology 102(4), 916-932.
Burn, K., Hagger, H. & Mutton, T. (2010) Strengthening and sustaining learning in the second year of teaching, Oxford
Review of Education 36 (6) 639-659.
Mutton, T., Burn, K. & Hagger, H. (2011) Learning to Plan, Planning to Learn; the Developing Expertise of Beginning
Teachers, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 17 (4) 399-416.
Hagger, H., Mutton, T & Burn, K. (2011) Surprising but not shocking: the reality of the first year of teaching, Cambridge
Journal of Education, 41 (4) 387-405.
Burn, K. Hagger, H. and Mutton, T. (2015) Beginning Teachers’ Learning: Making Experience Count , Critical Publishing.